Paul,I wish I had your reflexes. For me it's been life long lessons about management of the quantities of whatever was in front of me, be it chemistry to measure radiation in nuclear power plant coolant water, micro-grams of a given drug or nutrient as medication, or gram/ounce scale measurement in baking. The benefit I see with dosing a portafilter is literally the 1/10th gram mass adjustments possible when the grind seems right but the timing or pressure is a couple seconds off or half a bar off the sweet spot.

All the same, I can totally get the synergy of free-styling a run of drinks and everyone around the bar being happier than when they came in.

Can anyone offer tips on milk steaming for the BDB? I am either getting no foam, or I am doubling the volume of the milk and having way too much. Can someone describe the technique they use to get microfoam? (or even better upload a video)

I believe the volume pushed through your puck is not only affected by the blend & dose, but also grind. You can also set the volume yourself if you wish. So whatever the buttons are set at from the factory, they can not be perfect for everyone. You can set them to your preference. If you switch coffees the dose may be off for the new coffee.

Thanks to the boards here and at CS, I started weighing my shots. I prefer a normale, or roughly 2x the weight (in the shot) of the ground espresso in the basket. That is, 18g in the basket gives 36g of espresso in the shot glass. I use the manual button to start & stop the shot, not the pre-programmed double button. However, once I have my grind set I generally find the pre-programmed double button to be pretty close to what I was doing manually. Some prefer a 'ristretto' which would be a tighter grind giving only 18g in a similar amount of time. At least that's my understanding of the terms. There is a pre-infusion which adds to the time counted by your machine. It's 7 seconds pre-infusion, but can be changed. This gets confusing when people quote shot times, but generally something around 30seconds for the pour after the pre-infusion is considered about right and a good starting place.

Measuring shots by volume is tricky and inconsistent. If you are looking for consistency, use weight. Use a scale to check your tamping, use a scale to check the espresso in your basket. Use weight. Use a scale to check your shot weight as it pours. By doing that your only variable left is - grind. The Breville will keep your brew temp within 1ºF of what you set it at, so that's not a variable.

A pro Barista does this enough everyday to know a correct dose and tamp from training. S/he must pump out drinks quickly. Most of us here aren't pulling that many shots and have the time to do the math. As a Roaster I do want to point out that once you have ground your coffee you should move quickly. Coffee ground that fine stales easily. I also recommend purging the stale coffee from your grinder if it's sitting for a few minutes. Just a few seconds of running most grinders will do the trick.

If you get adventurous then you can create variables with the brew temp and pre-infusion parameters. Personally I set brew temp higher for lighter roasts, lower for darker roasts. Heck you can even mess with the dose if you want to. Before you do all that, get consistent with the dose, tamp, and liquid output.

It's ALL opinion, which doesn't help. Work with one variable at a time and you will likely experience less frustration! By managing your variables one at a time you can find what YOU like and then REPEAT IT! Which is the point. So try shots that go long or short, you never know what you might like.

That's my unsolicited opinion. I read through 140 pages on one site and 70+ on another and that's what I've taken away.

BTW- I use a $10 bathroom scale for checking my tamp and a sub $20 scale that measures to .1g for everything else. Not a huge investment.

One of the things I was confused about was where the microfoam was supposed to be. I thought it was just a layer on top, but those links seem to say that the foam should be evenly distributed throughout the milk. I originally thought you poured milk, then poured the foam at the end.

Some of the experts at microfoam and art can answer better. There are microfoam threads not related to a specific machines. In my limited experience there is not going to be 100% microfoam in a pitcher, and air/foam floats. Seen through glass, there will be some milk at the bottom of foam.

It looked like about 40 seconds from coffee showing at the basket until stop, for about 1.5 oz. Longer by pump time of course. I also note that this is a fairly new machine to you, and I have no experience with BDB. The shot seemed long, and seemed quite light colored, possibly blonded at the end. Perhaps a bit fine on the grind. Distribution seemed good and I know that is what you were actually checking. Looks like you are having fun with your new machine and learning :)

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